The present Invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Calathea plant, botanically known as Calathea hybrida, and hereinafter referred to by the name ‘TWYCA0018’.
The new Calathea is a product of a planned breeding program conducted by the Inventor in Bogor, Indonesia. The objective of the breeding program is to create new fast-growing Calathea cultivars with freely branching habit and attractive leaf coloration.
The new Calathea originated from a cross-pollination made by the Inventor in Bogor, Indonesia in February, 1999, of an unnamed selection of Calathea loesenerii×Calathea illustris, not patented, as the female, or seed, parent with an unnamed selection of Calathea libbyana, not patented, as the male, or pollen, parent. The cultivar of TWYCA0018 was discovered and selected by the Inventor as a single plant within the progeny of the stated cross-pollination in a controlled environment in Bogor, Indonesia in October, 2001.
Asexual reproduction of the new Calathea by divisions in a controlled environment in Bogor, Indonesia has shown that the unique features of this new Calathea are stable and are reproduced true to type in successive generations.